24 Aug 2014

President Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama says the government is “seriously contemplating” paying the 286 nationwide headmen of arbitration monthly allowances as the economy begins to show positive signs of recovery.

President Khama said during a kgotla meeting he addressed on Friday August 22 in Hebron in the Southern District that the gesture would be in recognition of the sterling job the elders do for the sake of nation building.

 While he also appreciated the good job done by VDCs nationwide and acknowledged that their allowances were too low, he reasoned that government was still hamstrung by the current economic climate.

President Khama further revealed that government also intended to augment public service salaries, social security packages like food baskets and old age pensions in due course.

On other issues, he said government would carry on with some projects like the tarmacking of the Mokatako/Borobadilepe road which was shelved as a result of the current economic climate.

Gen Khama revealed that it costed government over P4 million to tarmac just a kilometre stretch.

He said government had thus taken a deliberate decision to prioritise programmes like ISPAAD, Ipelegeng, Poverty Eradication, Tirelo Sechaba and Youth Development Fund (YDF), among others, with a view to improving the livelihoods of Batswana.

He also expressed optimism that government would be able to create more permanent jobs in future and thus slash the number of Ipelegeng workers, which was only a temporary relief measure. 

The President has thus urged capable Batswana to take advantage of the available citizen empowerment programmes to create jobs for themselves and others.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Transport and Communication Mr Nonofo Molefhi, who attended the meeting, explained that the Mokatako/Borolong road had been awarded to a private contractor to grade every two months for a year.

For his part, area MP Mr Kitso Mokaila commended the President for his active efforts in bettering the lives of Batswana. Ends